Jane Maynard

The absolute bare minimum we required of Labour was that they did not gift power to Farage.

Rage, rage against the growing of the debt It's past time to abolish real interest rates for Plan 2 Student Loans

For every additional £100 a Plan 2 graduate earns they repay an extra £9 - but their debt also accrues an additional £7.20 in interest, due to the rising interest rate.

www.edrith.co.uk/p/rage-rage-...

It's rare to see how lobbyists operate. But the Epstein-Mandelson correspondence shows us what happens all the time: plutocrats and government ministers conspiring against the public interest. This is why all lobbying should be in the public domain, but despite Labour and Con promises, it's not. 🧵

Mandelson, through the go between, Epstein, was advising Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, how to lobby the Government to reduce JPM’s exposure to the tax.

And he couldn’t see anything wrong with that?

Really really wrong?

My first remarks since being arrested last night.

Britain's youth are living in Nick Clegg's shadow All except the richest graduates since 2012 face a bespoke additional tax. No wonder they're radicalised

I wrote this last week - but I've been writing about this for years. This crisis has been very obvious for a long time.

I'm on the old system. This isn't about me being "entitled" and wanting someone else to pay for my degree. It's about a system that is mad

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

AI nudification: the latest weapon of violence against women and girls In Julie Burchill’s recent article in the Spectator, Does it really matter if Grok undresses us all?, she makes the argument that those who, like me, have repeatedly had their clothes removed by socia...

This week, an X user created an AI video of me being chloroformed and prepared for rape.

Victims are told it's not real and they're getting offended for no reason.

But nudification tools are weapons of sexual assault, and the harm they cause is real 👇

jessasato.substack.com/p/ai-nudific...

Trump's utterance that force would not be used against Greenland has no more weight than any other of his utterances, and it certainly does not amount to him "ruling out" the use of force in any meaningful way.

Disappointing to see so many news outlets place that construction on what he said.

Britain's youth are living in Nick Clegg's shadow All except the richest graduates since 2012 face a bespoke additional tax. No wonder they're radicalised

I remember some journalists (myself included) trying to flag the injustice - in particular the insane interest terms which made the loans unrepayable. In response, we got lectures about the surge in student numbers from low-income backgrounds

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Britain's youth are living in Nick Clegg's shadow All except the richest graduates since 2012 face a bespoke additional tax. No wonder they're radicalised

Anyway. In 2024-5, over £15bn of interest was applied to student loans. Repayments totalled just £5bn.

And now those young people are coming into their professional prime with what is in essence a bespoke additional tax. And people are panicking. Finally.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Why is Donald Trump changing his mind every five minutes and saying completely mad stuff an embarrassment for Keir Starmer? It feels like it should chiefly be seen as an embarrassment for the United States.

I mean, it is

Reminder that in the UK an incoming radical, populist government would have immediate access to immense, unchecked executive power.

And the current government is doing nothing to protect us from that.

Musk says X outcry is 'excuse for censorship' The government is urging Ofcom to use all its powers – up to and including an effective ban – against X.

Preventing the sharing of sexualised images of children is “censorship” according to Elon Musk.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The end goal of Grok sexual harassment is to make women afraid to be visible. It’s a punishment for daring to exist in a way the perpetrators can’t control. There’s no one solution to this, because the problem isn’t just technological. It’s cultural. It’s misogyny. This is just one expression of it.

European weakness on full display by these horribly contorted responses from Merz, Macron and Starmer - neither condoning nor condemning US actions in Venezuela

Such weakness only risks making the Europeans more vulnerable (ie Greenland)

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts.

Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

There is, to my mind, no justification for the continued use by the UK Government of X as a platform for official comms. There hasn't been for some time, in fact, but if the latest developments around AI-generated image abuse and CSAM don't change the policy I really don't know what will.

France to investigate deepfakes of women stripped naked by Grok Hundreds of women and teenagers have reported their photos published on social media have been “undressed” by Grok.

Several French government ministers have reported the unlawful production of sexualised material without consent to the police and prosecutors. The UK government, which published a high profile strategy on misogyny just before Christmas, has yet to say or do anything
www.politico.eu/article/fran...

Excellent point in great thread. Just as an illustrative example, in the Budget, Rachel Reeves hiked taxes on essentially all post-2012 graduates and announced her intent to hike taxes on everyone who saves a decent amount into their pension. These groups are both core Labour voters!

The "don't have an extra kid if you can't afford it" brigade get awfully upset when you suggest they don't stay in their £2m house if they can't afford it, don't they?

Rachel Reeves hits young graduates with a double stealth tax The Chancellor plans to raise as much money from freezing loan repayment thresholds as from the mansion tax

I'm constantly shocked (but not surprised) by how little we discuss the additional financial burden placed on young people by the Clegg-Cameron student loan regime.

@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇

Rachel Reeves hits young graduates with a double stealth tax The Chancellor plans to raise as much money from freezing loan repayment thresholds as from the mansion tax

Lots of good stuff in the Budget, but bad news for graduates.

Luckily, it's not like Labour is relying on the votes of young university educated professionals...

www.newstatesman.com/politics/eco...

What the hell were they doing for the TWO YEARS it was obvious they were going to win with a massive majority?

The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.

Next time a grifter complains about diversity initiatives in healthcare I beg the broadcasting host to ask them about this

The full transcript of Zohran Mamdani's acceptance speech is very much worth reading in full. Even if you don't agree with your politics, it's very beautifully put together.

archive.is/8VqQJ

[this is a useable link to the NYT transcript]

Rich people taxed too much, young people paid too much. Gotcha.

Nigel Farage Says Minimum Wage Should Be Cut for Young People The Reform leader said cutting the minimum wage for young people would boost business, as he attacked plans to raise taxes on the wealthy

Nigel Farage, who has so far registered a total of £280,500 for four hours a month as a "brand ambassador" for a company selling gold bars, thinks a £10 an hour minimum wage for young people is too high bylinetimes.com/2025/11/03/n...

This man is clearly deranged